Last week, while discussing Wendell Berry’s Unsettling of America, we had a conversation about how much of the food found in supermarkets today is processed and altered to the point that it is debatable whether it can actually be considered food. In 1938, Congress passed the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, which put strict rules, requiring companies to place the word “imitation” on any food products trying to mimic the actual food item (e.g. an example today would be mass-produced maple syrup, which is in reality just corn syrup). In 1973, the food industry successfully lobbied to get this rule tossed out, which was a little-noticed ruling that allowed companies to alter food even more, without fear of consumer push-back. In this way, consumers were left in the dark, with little information about the food choices they should make. Michael Pollan talks about this more in In Defense of Food.
Anyways, this brings me to Crispy Cones, a company that has placed “food” in a deep fried cone for your portable enjoyment. What, exactly, you are eating is certainly a mystery. I thought this was an interesting tie into the concept of both producer and consumer being separated from the actual food source. Here’s a link with Colbert mocking the Crispy Cone.
